How to add new member
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How to add new member Greetings, We have a few people interested in joining our group. Unfortunately, the only thing we have in place in our Partnership Agreement referencing new members is that they have to voted in by majority of the club. Will some of you please share how you handle the money issue for new members? I was going to have them pay the initial fee of $50 that everyone paid and then have them begin contributing monthly. Will bivio sort that out for me at the end of the year if I just simply add a member? Thanks a bunch for your help! Johnny Johnny, the accounting program will do just fine giving each person units at the value they are when they pay. For new members, a $50 administration fee posted as fee is OK as long as it has been consistently done that way for all other members, and continues in the future with new members. Then just post their regular monthly payments when they make them. Be sure you make copies of all checks submitted to Scottrade, and if one check is for two members, note your records as such. It will be up to you to audit and edit the payment transactions coming out of Account Synch to see that the proper persons are credited with the payments made. Gene Rooks, SWIM, Orlando Will some of you please share how you handle the money issue for new members?
I was going to have them pay the initial fee of $50... Hi Johnny,
Is the $50 their initial "stake" in the club? Or is it an administrative fee? Either way, all you have to do is click on the appropriate item--Fee or Contribution.
When a member joins our club, they pay a $25 entry fee, $50 towards their own capital account (which buys units), and Toolkit 5 software. The total cost is $299. Then they pay $30/month.
Lynn Ostrem, VP
Crow River Investment Club
At 07:18 PM 5/29/2008, you wrote: Will some of you please share how you handle the money issue for new members? In our club the initial "fee" ($25) goes to Petty Cash . Then there is a minimum monthly contribution of $25. So we usually collect a check for $50 when they join. Some new people choose to contribute more. Our club has chosen not to use the "fee" option in the accounting software. We use petty cash just because it's so minimal. All of our club members must be members of BI. That is determined by what type of membership they want and if they want to pay BI directly etc. We do NOT require that they own Toolkit initially especially since the online version is available now and most of our existing members have it. New members must learn to do an SSG but if they choose to do them by hand we don't care. Cherilyn J. Peay New Mexico Model Investment Club PO Box 1408 Bernalillo, NM 87004-1408 (505) 867-4379 (505) 867-4224 fax Our club posts the initial new member
administration as Member Fee, it does not buy units. To be fair, this must
have applied to beginning members and every new member, the same amount.
In my opinion, $50 is a reasonable enough amount. Our club pays BI
dues for members out of club funds every year, and our expenses are allocated by
membership share.
All member contributions are to be posted as
payments to buy units. The only other fees ever posted would be an
individual late fee, or bounced check charge, something personal, nothing across
the board.
Expenses are paid out of club funds, all member
payments besides the initial new member charge are posted to buy
units.
Gene Rooks, SWIM, Orlando
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Our club posts the initial new member administration as
Member Fee, it does not buy units. To be fair, this must have applied to
beginning members and every new member, the same amount. In my opinion,
$50 is a reasonable enough amount. Our club pays BI dues for members out
of club funds every year, and our expenses are allocated by membership
share.
>> I just don't understand this, Gene. You are relentless in
your efforts to protect those with lesser ownership units from getting their
values eroded by those who wish to allocate expenses equally. Yet, you find
nothing wrong with taking the better part of $50 away from each new member. For
what? As you say, you are paying all administrative expenses out of members'
payments. The original idea behind establishing an initiation fee was to
compensate original members who had to bear the club start-up costs. Most club's
using online accounting don't have much in the way of start-up costs. If you
have 10 members, that would be $500, which is way more than the start-up costs
of any club with which I have been connected. Then assuming that during the life
of the club they take in 30 more members. That would be $1,500 in addition to
the original $500 to cover start-up costs. I just can't see it.
Rip West Saint Paul, MN Good morning Rip, I knew you might be calling my
hand on this. First let me say that this was an original PA provision by
the originators of our club, in fact, I was the first new member to have it
applied to, but it has been applied to all since, and it would be hard to change
procedure now, as I don't see an easy fix to reallocate those funds sprinkled
throughout are club history in a way to equalize things if we drop it for new
members.
If I were starting from scratch, though, I still
think $50 is not unreasonable for new member administration fees that increase
the unit values slightly of existing members who have had values decreased
through the years for various expense items allocated by membership share.
We run $400-$800 annually on various expenses, including dues, software,
operating supplies, etc..
We give all new members an educational book of
their choice, and as I stated, and the club absorbs their BI renewal costs, so
there is value received. Since the amount did not buy them units, it is
absorbed into the club value, and is somewhat of a deterrent to early
withdrawals, since that amount is not part of the market value that would be
returned to them.
I do adamantly stay opposed to allocating expenses
equally when membership shares are unequal, and to assessing across the board
funds posted as fees rather than payments to cover expenses.
Best wishes, Gene |
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